Bernardo Castello (Genoa 1557-1629)

The present drawing, which Mary Newcome Schleier has dated to the 1590s, depicts a relatively rare subject in Genoese art of the late 16th Century, that of Perseus and Andromeda. It has been suggested that Castello was inspired by Andrea Semino (1525-1595), who was his master, and who treated the subject in the Palazzo Doria, Genoa in the mid-1560s (R. Erbentraut, ‘Die Spinola-Fresken des Palazzo Pessagno Pallavicino und die Schlacht von Mühlberg’, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 1990, no. 4, p. 555, fig. 19). While this drawing has been squared for transfer, it is not known to correspond to any surviving painting or fresco by the artist, although he, or a member of his studio, depicted a differently composed version of the same subject for the Palazzo Centurione, Genoa (F. Caraceni, Guide di Genova, No.80, Sampierdarena: Palazzo Centurione del Monastero, Genoa, 1979, p. 6, fig. 9). This drawing can be compared stylistically to a slightly smaller sheet depicting the Abduction of Orithyia by Boreas, datable around 1604-05 and now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orleans (Inv. 1500; E. Pagliano, op.cit., no. 157).